


no fuss (much fuss)

by volunteer_of_hufflepuff



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: A modern adaptation of Shakespeare, All Human, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Lawyer Alec Lightwood, Much Ado About Nothing AU, Multi, Slow Burn, because why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-05 18:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14624183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/volunteer_of_hufflepuff/pseuds/volunteer_of_hufflepuff
Summary: After a long tour away from home - and his last - Simon returns home to his sweetheart and fiancè Isabelle Lightwood. In tow he brings Clary, his best friend, Magnus, his manager, and Jonathan - Clary’s apparently repentant brother.But back in New York, there is also Alexander Lightwood, who is in a “merry war of wit” with Magnus, a man who used to hold his heart.In a modern twist of Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, will their arguments hold - or will they fall?





	no fuss (much fuss)

**Author's Note:**

> As I was reading Much Ado About Nothing, a thought struck me - what if I wrote an AU for this, featuring Shadowhunter characters? No, I begged my brain, trying to push my imagination down, I need to be productive.
> 
> ... needless to say, my imagination won, and here we are.
> 
> Enjoy!

_"I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick, nobody marks you."_

_"What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?"_

\\./.\\./

Simon's old, fraying slacks may not have been stylish, and his hair may have looked like he had walked through a hurricane - but his soul had finally settled, for the comfort it had sought during the tour was abundant here in his home. In New York, Brooklyn. Though Magnus didn't seem to share his joy.

"I wish we were back on tour," he said, his jacket unruffled, not as if he had just been on a ten-hour flight - which, indeed, he had been. "There are some people in New York that I would rather... avoid."

Simon sighed, turning away from the baggage carousel. "I know, Magnus. Will you two stop hiding behind wicked words and face your fears?"

Words weren't Simon's art; singing was, but sometimes they would spill out of his mouth in a poetic jumble, and someone would have the intelligence to write them down, and that was how he wrote his allegedly stunning songs.

"Easy for you to say," Magnus muttered dejectedly, twirling his suitcase around in little circles.

"Is it?" Simon asked, watching the turning of the carousel. "Alec hates me - like, he glares at me almost constantly. And I'm going to be married to his sister soon! And, like, it's going to be terrifying!"

The anger in Magnus' silencing glare couldn't mask the intricate loss heavy in his eyes. 

"Simon," Clary said gently, resting her hand on his shoulder, "shut up, please."

"Ok. So, Isabelle, Maryse, and Alec are coming to pick us up soon. They're about nine miles away." Simon sighed once again, before heading off to retrieve his suitcase. "Izzy won't be happy if you kill her brother," he added as he walked away, "so don't think about it."

"Damn," he heard Magnus mumble sarcastically as he approached the carousel, "better put my poison away then."

Two waves battling in an effort that the noise and grandeur they created would let their sorrow be lost  - but Simon wasn't stupid. He'd face the storm as it came, and perhaps, turn it back into the merry, peaceful lake it was once and for all.

\\./.\\./

_"Lady, you have lost Signor Benedick's heart."_

_"Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry once before he won it of me, with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it."_

\\./.\\./

"Please be civil, Alec." A simple request, if it had been about anyone else.

Simon's  _we've landed_ text had come about an hour ago - Izzy had forced Alec none so gently in the car, despite the fact that his presence was unnecessary. It wasn't his fiancè he was seeing for the first time in months.

Perhaps he shouldn't have shielded his heart so viciously, but Magnus had shattered it, so Alec used those shards to scratch him back as hard as he could, which wasn't much. And it was difficult to back down now, difficult to let down his guard and, maybe, give Magnus another chance. But Magnus always ran away anyway, so what was the point?

"Oh, has Mr Talented landed back into town?" Alec mocked with bitterness but more so misery seeping into his voice.

Izzy groaned, leaning against the window. "Alec,  _please_."

"I don't care what he does," Alec continued, watching the buildings fly by, "but if I don't want to see him, then I shouldn't have to. If I am dragged to meet him 'in preparation' than I refuse to be civil. If you ignore my wishes, how do you expect me to remotely respect yours?"

Izzy stayed silent until the car passed under the airport gate, not perking up with words but with happiness.

"We're here," Alec said stiffly as the car came to a halt, whilst Izzy's buckle went flying. "You can get out. I'm staying -"

"Coming out. You're going out, Alexander," Maryse said from the front seat, "don't be impolite and not help them with their luggage."

"Fine." Alec unclipped his belt, swinging the door open carefully, lest he accidentally scratches the paint.

It is some moment of blissful silence except for the distant chatter and the roar of planes that he enters. But it doesn't last for long.

"Don't want to open the door for me?" 

"Courtesy itself dies in your presence." Alec stepped out into the flurry, being careful to not face the owner of the snide voice. "I don't owe you anything."

There was a time when Alec would have been grateful to see Magnus, to spend time with him, but though his feelings remained - and, oh, he had tried to banish them without success - his presence sprinkled salt into wounds that could never fully heal when the cause never seemed to go away.

Caring for someone and not being able to talk to them is somewhat the worst curse, somehow.

\\./.\\./

_"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swears he loves me."_

\\./.\\./

"Wasn't that out of fashion 5 years ago?" Magnus said, eyeing Alec's jacket with false disdain.

The jacket, in fact, was absolutely gorgeous and hugged Alec's biceps in a way which was truly sinful.

"Weren't you?" Alec muttered absentmindedly, before turning towards his sister. "And what did I do again, exactly, to face such harsh punishment?"

 _Punishment?_ Magnus wondered, his heart thudding against its diamond cage. But of course. Alec didn't interact with Magnus voluntarily or with any resemblance of joy, not anymore.

"Nothing," said Izzy quietly. "But I thought it good for you to come."

"And to hear the jibes of someone who lost their wit seasons ago?"

As always, the insult stung, so Magnus lashed out. "Oh, how I wish my service had the speed of your tongue, O Signor Alec."

"Hm," Alec said, continuing to look at his sister in spite of his curt, cutting responses being directed at Magnus. "Unfortunately, I am out of service. I would rather have a woman than a man swear he loves me."

"And I would rather have neither," Magnus sniped, his heart dropping. "My heart is not mine to give to any person."

"Good," Alec said, reclining back in his seat, "I thank you on the behalf of everyone, for your heart would be an incredibly prickly and unpleasant one to hold."

Izzy blinked, her mouth hanging open a little as her eyes glimmered with tears. "Alec -"

"Shut up," Alec said, glaring at his sister. "If you insist on doing idiotic things, you will get disastrous results."

"Oh," Izzy replied, her defeat evident in the slump of her shoulders. "All right, if you insist. I think I've learnt my lesson."

"You'd think you'd have figured that out the first few thousand times." Alec closed his eyes, his mouth twisted into a frown. "G'night."

Izzy mouthed Magnus  _sorry_ over Alec's shoulder, but Magnus dismissed her. It - this wasn't a good method, but letting the hurt seep out of himself, trying to inflict even a small percentage of what it carried to its root cause, felt like the only thing keeping Magnus from exploding in grief.

For Magnus had been correct; his heart was not his, anymore. No, he had given it away to Alec a while ago, and perhaps, if the jagged wound left by their break up had been left to heal, he would have been slowly been able to tear it back, to glue it together with shaky tape as he had done a dozen of times before.

But Alec was different. Love could be presented as hate, but the source didn't differ. 

\\./.\\./

_"Let me bid you welcome, my lord, being reconciled to the prince your brother: I owe you all duty."_

_"I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you."_

\\./.\\./

"Jace," Clary said warmly, leaving the baggage behind for Simon to deal with. She threw her arms over her not quite boyfriend like he was a patch of sunlight that had evaded her cold body for months. "It's so good to see you."

"Hi," said Simon, wheeling his suitcase out away from the car as Magnus and Alec unloaded the rest of the luggage in stormy silence, the sparks flying off threatening to explode at any second. "Jace. How's the fitness gig going?"

Having a vested interest in your future brother-in-laws' lives was considered polite, so Simon expressed it on occasion, and so far, neither Jace or Alec had felt the need to carry through with their initial threats when he started dating Izzy. Max had a somewhat more vicious weapon that he utilised all the time when he was feeling bored; spoilers.

"Not bad," Jace said, shrugging, as Clary's hands reluctantly drifted off his shoulders. "No one has died. Your music career seems," he gestured vaguely, "successful."

"Well, this was my last tour," Simon said, handing Clary her suitcase which she dropped almost immediately - why she thought that bringing a duffle bag was a good idea he honestly didn't know. "Luckily my fans are relatively understanding. The monthly livestreams are enough to keep them satisfied."

Simon - whilst not wildly successful - was successful enough to make music his career and to employ Magnus, his full-time manager who constantly complained about his lack of, well, consistency.

Jace's eyes flickered over to Magnus and Alec, who had thankfully stayed silent thus far. "Let me get you into the house. Mum and Dad are... thrilled for the wedding."

 _Thrilled_ might be a bit of an understatement, but they were at least relatively civil with him after Alec had started to date Magnus.

... Which hadn't exactly bode well for Magnus, or the two's relationship.

\\./.\\./

_"The prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance."_

\\./.\\./

"I believe," Robert said to his wife Maryse, "that Clarissa has... romantic interest in Jace. Should we... dissuade him against her advances?"

Maryse smiled thinly, because in fact secretly she wished to not be his wife for much longer, for she had discovered his cheating many years ago but it had never been the right time to... do it.

"Clary," she began, intentionally stressing the shortened and preferred version of the girl's name, "is a perfectly respectable young woman. We will not dissuade our adult son considering who he chooses to date. Look how well that ended up last time."

Robert stayed silent for a while, perhaps not willing to admit the relatively large part he played in putting an end to his eldest son's happiness. "She's an artist."

"A successful, talented, artist," Maryse amended, shaking her head. Her hair was tightly coiled and she had swept away from the car, a treasured escape from a husband who was barely home but whose presence lingered suffocatingly in every room.

The doorbell rang, oddly, giving her another temporary escape. Her heels clicking against the cobblestones gave her strength and comfort.

"Hello," she said, blinking, not recognising the elegant young man currently standing on her doorstep. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

"Clary's brother," he said, holding his hand out to shake. She shook it, noting his firm grip.

"Ah, yes, Johnathan." She moved aside. "Please, come in."

"Thank you," he said sincerely as he pulled in a suitcase behind him, "I am not of many words, but I thank you."

\\./.\\./

_"A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours."_

_"I would my horse had the speed of your tongue and so good a continuer."_

\\./.\\./

The air was stiff; thick, two atoms that had once been bonded so tightly but had exploded on a catastrophic scale, now repelling the other at every single turn. For Magnus felt like his heart was gone; like he wasn't alive, that there was an empty, skeleton cage pumping his blood and moving his lungs but that he wasn't truly alive. Denial may be sweet at first bite, but it had quickly turned bitter, becoming increasingly expensive to keep on, not perhaps financially but emotionally.

"How's," Magnus said, leaning against the car boot, looking away from the sun which had blinded him without offering any relief no more, "work?"

Civility was like a daydream, now; whilst not fighting, not bickering might not be ideal, peace is what helps the world spin. But love, love, that is what makes it tick.

"Fine." Alec lugged out a suitcase and sent it spiralling towards Isabelle. "Yours seems to be... successful."

"It was," Magnus said, pulling out Simon's backpack and carelessly tossing it to the grass, "and it'll be less stressful now that Simon has ceased touring."

"Good." A word that was, technically, positive; but content was often drowned by intent; and Alec's was sour, dripping with sarcasm. "I guess."

Magnus twisted one of his rings. "What, is managing not enough of a professional job for you?"

"I don't know," Alec began, shutting the boot, "I'm not the one who said that being a lawyer was boring and dry. Which it can be if I wasn't doing social justice law, which I am. In case you have forgotten."

Beforehand, Magnus accidentally introducing Alec as a civil lawyer instead of a social justice lawyer to Simon had been a laugh, an accident to be looked back on with a blushing gaze. But now it was just another thorn in a thick bush of wilted roses.

"I haven't," said Magnus quietly, subdued with the downwards tilt of his head.

So Alec shook his head, locked the car and wandered off without another word.

And his insult had torn through the remains of Magnus' heart, leaving a bloody streak behind - for thorns can be a barely noticed nuisance to the beholder but death to their victim.

\\./.\\./

_"I looked upon her with a soldier's eye, that liked, but had a rougher task at hand, than to drive liking to the name of love."_

_..._

_"If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it."_

\\./.\\./

Simon was actually getting married. Of course, when Izzy had first proposed to him, and he had said yes enthusiastically - rushing off to buy Izzy an engagement ring too, afterwards with Clary - it had been an abstract idea, still. Yes, he wanted to call Izzy his wife - wanted to hear _Simon Lewis, Isabelle Lightwood's husband_ \- but the marriage was such a final, precious thing. 

For how had he been so lucky, to scrape off a slither off the jewel of marriage, for a marriage built on a solid foundation and love? With someone who had put up with his inconsistency, the fuzzy Skype calls and death threats from enraged fans. Simon was blessed.

Jace had disappeared off inside, leaving Simon and Clary to stand outside together in the sun, a nice little pause for their somewhat chaotic day.

"Clary," he started, and then stopped.

Clary looked - fragile. A thin piece of paper moulded into the very image of perfection, but with one cut, she would crumble. And it would not be pretty.

"Hey," he said, softly this time, low and accompanied with a hug, rubbing her back, "is everything ok?"

Clary laughed; bright, but watery, like the aftermath of a storm with a rainbow blazing in its path. "No, Simon. It's not. I'm not."

"It's," a puff of air, light in essence but heavy in meaning, brushed against Simon's ear before she pulled away from Simon to sink onto the grass, clearly not caring when its dampness soaked into her jeans. Simon followed. "It's just, this whole, relationship thing, it's difficult, you know?"

"Yes," Simon said, nodding, "but we've been great, Luke's been great, so I suspect that this is more of a romantic matter."

"Jace." The name rolled off her tongue, hanging in the air like a star reflected in a puddle; one whose perfection was at the complete mercy of everyone.

"Ok. Jace then. What's happened?"

"Well," she sighed, pulling out a dandelion from the grass and twirling it around absentmindedly, "nothing, to be honest. We'd - he'd been really nice, we'd gone on a few not-quite-dates... but then the whole Magnus and Alec fiasco happened, and... he pulled away. And then we were going on tour, and neither of us said anything, but, now, there's not going to be any miles between us to save me from discussing... feelings." She laughed, shaking her head, her hair catching the light. "It's not bad, exactly, just... confusing."

"Driving liking to love isn't easy," Simon said, focusing on the glint of Clary's hair, "or even giving it a chance, which would be what you would be doing if you gave your spark with Jace a chance to fan itself into a flame. But, the alternative? The whispering, stomach curdling what-ifs? What if I had jumped off, without a bungee cord, into nothingness, and they had caught me?"

Like Izzy had caught Simon; with grace, poise and like it was the most natural thing in the world. But Magnus and Alec, they had been intertwined so tightly... but the... event had proved to be the shears tough enough to cut their vines.

"Love is scary, Clary. But look at Magnus and Alec." Simon let the sun wash over him, let his love for Izzy swell within him, but it couldn't kill off the sorrow he felt for all of the unnecessary heartbreak spurned by his future in-laws' meddling.

The grimaces. The pain, the shards of heartbreak that had reflected in Magnus' eyes earlier after Alec had stormed off. They both thought that their pain went undetected, but both of them also wore their hearts on tattered sleeves.

Simon took the dandelion out of Clary's hands, forcing her to look at him. "We're not blind. Their feelings haven't... disappeared. They've transformed into something bitter and destructive to them both. Remember, if you don't want you and Jace to turn out like Magnus and Alec, that communication is key."

"Thanks, Simon." Clary leaned her head against Simon's shoulder, the silence blanketing them both. "Let's go get you married."

\\./.\\./

_"If I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way. You are both sure, and will assist me?_

_"To the death, my lord."_

\\./.\\./

"My reputation will never be truly savoured, my lady. If I embrace my evil, won't I be more successful, a better contribution to this world?"

"Of course," the voice purred, "my dear Johnathan."

"That," and a hiss, vicious and deadly, escaped Johnathan's lips, "Simon, stealing my position as Clarissa's brother. She's _mine_."

His mother. Dead. A freak accident, they had said, tracking him down through paperwork he hadn't even known existed. The first time he had ever seen her in living memory since his father had stolen him, running away under the cloak of night. He had always wanted a sibling, someone to escape the cruel hand of his father with - but his father was in prison, now. And when he had attended the funeral, he had found the sister he had always wanted - but she had already had a brother.

Johnathan watched the flickering of the curtain, already imagining flames of jealousy licking the house ravenously. "I will make his world burn, and the flame will be in his own hands. Lilith, have they agreed?"

"They have," Lilith said, the silky tone comforting. "All they need is for you to unlock the door and to keep Isabelle distracted. And then," her voice grew deeper, more sinister yet delighted, "we will unnecessarily shatter both of their hearts like we have done to the Lightwoods' before."

The words hang in the air; of course, last time, they hadn't been caught, and nor did they plan to be this time.

The phone call had ended. Resentment had stewed within Johnathan for so long that he couldn't remember when it had been first set to simmer; finally, its route of destruction had arrived.

He should get some sleep. After all, he had a wedding to decimate. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and comments and kudos are always appreciated xx
> 
> Also: of course, all the quotes in italics are from Shakespeare's wonderful play _Much Ado About Nothing_.
> 
> For further information, each chapter will be based on its respective act, as this one was.
> 
> A place to nag me about updates: my [tumblr](https://mirrorofliterature.tumblr.com/).


End file.
